Faculty Books

(African Music Publishers)

G. Foli Alorwoyie, professor of music, with David Locke,
professor of musicology at Tufts
University

Alorwoyie, regarded as one
of Ghana’s foremost virtuosos
of traditional music and
dance, explains the deeper
meaning behind the music,
lyrics and language of the
drums that the Ewes in West
Africa have developed for
centuries.

The tradition, which began
in the 17th and 18th centuries,
is still used today in
wakes, memorial services and
important events. But the cultural
significance is being lost
as the region moves toward
modernization.

Alorwoyie discusses
Agbadza musical instruments,
song structure and drumming
style. Accompanying the book
is a CD of 25 songs that he
transcribed into Western
notation with lyrics he translated
into English.

At UNT, he is the principal
dancer/choreographer
and director of the African
Percussion Ensemble.

(Etruscan Press)

Bruce Bond, Regents Professor of English

Bond, an award-winning
poet whose work has been
recognized internationally,
wrote this tetralogy inspired
by his experience with two
long-term nervous system
infections. Supported by
a faculty fellowship from
UNT’s Institute for the
Advancement of the Arts and
a Research and Creativity
Enhancement award, he
researched the psychological
aspects of the mind-body
relationship and the power of
mental force, and wrote most
of the poems during a five-year
span.

Choir of the Wells is his
ninth book, and three others
are due out next year:
The Other Sky (Etruscan
Press), poems in collaboration
with the painter Aron
Wiesenfeld; For the Lost
Cathedral (LSU Press); and
Immanent Distance: Poetry
and the Metaphysics of the
Near at Hand (University of
Michigan Press).

(Vanderbilt University Press)

Jacqueline Foertsch,
professor of English

In the first book examining
the relationship of African
Americans to the atom bomb
in postwar America, Foertsch
analyzes the response of
African Americans to the
Cold War in novels, press
coverage, films, popular
music and the protest work
of leaders such as W.E.B.
DuBois and Martin Luther
King Jr., who argued for
nuclear disarmament as well
as racial equality.

In her examination of
African American characters
in white-authored doomsday
fiction and nonfiction, she
notes that they are often
excluded from decision-making,
portrayed as indifferent
or absent entirely.

The inspiration for the
book came from her “Cold
War Literature and Culture”
class, in which she and her
students have explored novels
featuring an interracial cast
of characters trying to survive
the atomic age.

(Cambridge University Press)

Steven Forde, professor of
political science

Forde, whose research
interests include ancient to
modern political philosophy,
offers a new interpretation
of the philosophy of John
Locke, the founder of modern
democracy. He argues that
Locke’s devotion to modern
science influenced his moral
and political philosophy more
profoundly than has previously
been understood.

Forde maintains that natural
law based on the common
interest by divine command,
rather than individual right
based on self-interest, is at the
foundation of Locke’s moral
philosophy, and he explores
Locke’s philosophy of property,
politics and education in
that new light.

(UNT Press)

This anthology includes 17
original essays on Texas history
written by colleagues and
former students of Randolph
B. “Mike” Campbell, UNT’s
Lone Star Professor of Texas
History and one of the leading
authorities on the subject.

His definitive works
have remade how historians
understand Texas as
a Southern state, and his
research in local records has
become the model for community
studies in the field.

About half of the essays
are written by UNT alumni
who studied under Campbell.
McCaslin, Chipman and
Torget contribute work
on Texas Reconstruction,
José Antonio Pichardo and
Stephen F. Austin, respectively.

(University
Press of America)

Ami R. Moore, associate
professor of sociology

Moore, who came to the
U.S. from Togo in 1992,
examines whether black
African immigrants in Texas are achieving not only economic
success but also moralistic
success, such as being
valued and respected.

Study participants reported
challenges resulting in a sense
of marginalization, but also
remained willing to endure
the challenges for the benefits
of migration.

Moore received a Fulbright
U.S. Scholar research grant
to study AIDS-related issues
in her native country. Her
research interests also include
earnings differentials and the
effects of race, gender and
place of birth among immigrants
in the United States.

(University of Oklahoma Press)

James Mueller, professor of
journalism

Mueller researched period
newspapers to explore press
coverage of George Armstrong
Custer’s famous Last
Stand in 1876 at the Little
Bighorn — the battle between
federal troops of the 7th Cavalry
and Northern Plains
Indians that has been mythologized
through the years.

Mueller found that many
journalists not only were not
biased against the Indians,
but they blamed the government
for starting the war
and questioned who was to
blame for the loss. He says
the newspapers moved on to
other news and left the mythmaking
to popular culture
— such as biographies, paintings,
movies, novels and Wild
West shows.

(Wiley)

John Boardman of John
Boardman Associates, and
Brian Sauser, associate professor
of logistics

The authors explore how
systemic thinking — understanding
how systems influence
one another in a world
of systems — can solve problems,
whether in computers,
the military, business or
other fields.

The book explores a graphical
technique for understanding
new ways to create solutions
and includes systemic
maps or “systemigrams,”
case studies and software
developed by the authors.
It is a follow-up to Sauser
and Boardman’s 2008 book,
Systems Thinking: Coping with
21st Century Problems.

Sauser previously managed
an applied research and
development laboratory in
life sciences and engineering
at the NASA Johnson Space
Center and was the program
director of the New Jersey
NASA Specialized Center of
Research and Training.